Changing Dynamics of Accreditation in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

The Commission on Dental Accreditation is responsible for accrediting postgraduate dental education programs, including residencies and fellowships using a well-delineated process that includes an annual survey of various aspects of the program related to the Standards for Advanced Dental Education Programs in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a program self-study and site visit with a review by the Specialty Education Review Committee of the Commission and the Commission on a 5-year cycle. The primary goal of the accreditation process is to assure the public, the profession, and the institution that the program is in compliance with the published standards.

Mice deficient in heparanase exhibit impaired dendritic cell migration and reduced airway inflammation.

Heparanase is a ß-d-endoglucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulphate, a key component of the ECM and basement membrane. The remodelling of the ECM by heparanase has been proposed to regulate both normal physiological and pathological processes, including wound healing, inflammation, tumour angiogenesis and cell migration. Heparanase is also known to exhibit non-enzymatic functions by regulating cell adhesion, cell signalling and differentiation. In this study, constitutive heparanase-deficient (Hpse(-/-) ) mice were generated on a C57BL/6 background using the Cre/loxP recombination system, with a complete lack of heparanase mRNA, protein and activity. Although heparanase has been implicated in embryogenesis and development, Hpse(-/-) mice are anatomically normal and fertile. Interestingly, consistent with the suggested function of heparanase in cell migration, the trafficking of dendritic cells from the skin to the draining lymph nodes was markedly reduced in Hpse(-/-) mice. Furthermore, the ability of Hpse(-/-) mice to generate an allergic inflammatory response in the airways, a process that requires dendritic cell migration, was also impaired. These findings establish an important role for heparanase in immunity and identify the enzyme as a potential target for regulation of an immune response.